Languid Language Learning

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Batur
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Batur » Tue Aug 01, 2017 1:54 pm

Elenia wrote:Afterwards we went to the park, where a Mama duck and her two ducklets (they were bigger than ducklings) came to say hello. This has absolutely no relevance to anything, but it was so cute that I had to share. They came out of the water, waddled right up to us, then waddled back down again. I came to the conclusion that they were hoping we had food.


That's so interesting, I could imagine that funny situation. Thanks for sharing, your description is very detail, I like it. :-)
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Tue Aug 01, 2017 10:52 pm

I was still headachey today, and slept until it was obscenely late. I got through seven nine of my language pairs for Clozemaster - five Dutch, two French and two Finnish, but had to stop to get ready. Goodbye, eight day streak. I don't like having a different streak for my languages, because I get confused as to which ones I have done and which ones I haven't done, so I won't do any Clozemaster at all tomorrow.

However, it was all for a good cause. I met my boyfriends grandfather today, which meant about two and a half hours of Swedish conversation! I broke into English every now and again, and had to get my boyfriend to explain a few things for me, but all in all I'm feeling very proud of myself - and rightly so, I think!

Nothing else doing. I am meant to be buddy reading a book in English with my cousin, but will break it up with reading a bit more from Tove Jansson's Romaner and looking up more vocabulary. I might even get some Finnish reading in! Although at this rate, I am more interested in getting some listening done...
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MamaPata
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby MamaPata » Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:32 pm

Elenia wrote:However, it was all for a good cause. I met my boyfriends grandfather today, which meant about two and a half hours of Swedish conversation! I broke into English every now and again, and had to get my boyfriend to explain a few things for me, but all in all I'm feeling very proud of myself - and rightly so, I think!


Definitely! Very impressive!
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Wed Aug 02, 2017 7:25 pm

I found out today that the collection of novellas contains one that I have wanted for a really long time! It is the last one in the book, so I wouldn't have known about it had I not happened to look at the contents page entirely by chance. I am going to read that to my boyfriend instead and so have switched over to looking at that.

Reading this particular collection has made me more inspired to write an essay or a commentary than anything I've read in a long time. I think I will be better served writing a commentary, as I have been out of education too long for me to be able to think up a real essay title - and besides, I specialise in comparisons and I don't know what I would compare her to!

It's been a lazy day. I wrote out words and definitions till my hand hurt, but that only amounts to two and a half sides. I listened to another episode of Alex och Sigges podcast, and I stayed away from Clozemaster, as promised. I could/should have done some textbook work for Swedish or Finnish, but didn't.
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:29 am

Having lost my awesome [for me] eight day streak in Clozemaster I felt at liberty to drop a few pairings for the moment. So I dropped all the Dutch pairings apart from the Swedish-Dutch. I kept those because they are both less than 3,000 sentences so I should be able to race through them. I am interested in Dutch, and have wanted to learn for a long time, but not so much. The Benelux trip seems firmly off the cards, so there's no point in pushing it. This way I'm just keeping my finger in.

Otherwise, I got no reading or anything done yesterday. My boyfriend and I talked a little bit it Swedish in the supermarket, but not much. We usually keep Swedish to text chat, although not for any particular reason apart from that we both understand each other better in English. Eventually I imagine we'll be talking a good fifty-fifty mix.
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby WalkingAlone13 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 12:44 pm

Elenia wrote:
Otherwise, I got no reading or anything done yesterday. My boyfriend and I talked a little bit it Swedish in the supermarket, but not much. We usually keep Swedish to text chat, although not for any particular reason apart from that we both understand each other better in English. Eventually I imagine we'll be talking a good fifty-fifty mix.


I do not mean to be a party pooper, and I feel like a meanie for saying this, because for all I know the 50/50 may well become a reality in your case. However, from personal experience this really will not happen unless you absolutely force it to happen. I ended up speaking Finnish with the entire family (bar those I had to use Swedish with) with the only exception being my fiance. It got to the point where the rest of the family assumed we were being rude, until I pointed out that if I spoke Finnish with her, she would switch to English. Once this has established itself, you get the "excuse" for the rest of your days that, hey, we started off speaking in this language, it feels weird to speak anything but it with you, even though we can both speak x language.
I say excuse "excuse" as I see this a lot, however one of my friends whom I met several years before I even started learning German and therefore only ever spoke English with, speaks perfectly fine in German with me. In fact, we only speak German now. There is, of course, the odd occasion, where she might start a conversation in English, but as soon as I reply in German the rest will continue in German.

So, basically, my rather overdrawn point was, if it is indeed your wish to converse 50/50, I would try to establish this as soon as humanly possibly. :) It may well dispel disappointment further along.

Great job on the supermarket, by the way. I actually find the supermarket one of the most enjoyable places to practice conversing as there are ample opportunities to do so, plus it just seems intrinsically fun for some reason. I wish you all the best and look forward to reading more about your adventures as always!
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Fri Aug 04, 2017 1:10 pm

WalkingAlone13 wrote:I do not mean to be a party pooper, and I feel like a meanie for saying this, because for all I know the 50/50 may well become a reality in your case. However, from personal experience this really will not happen unless you absolutely force it to happen. I ended up speaking Finnish with the entire family (bar those I had to use Swedish with) with the only exception being my fiance. It got to the point where the rest of the family assumed we were being rude, until I pointed out that if I spoke Finnish with her, she would switch to English. Once this has established itself, you get the "excuse" for the rest of your days that, hey, we started off speaking in this language, it feels weird to speak anything but it with you, even though we can both speak x language.
I say excuse "excuse" as I see this a lot, however one of my friends whom I met several years before I even started learning German and therefore only ever spoke English with, speaks perfectly fine in German with me. In fact, we only speak German now. There is, of course, the odd occasion, where she might start a conversation in English, but as soon as I reply in German the rest will continue in German.

So, basically, my rather overdrawn point was, if it is indeed your wish to converse 50/50, I would try to establish this as soon as humanly possibly. :) It may well dispel disappointment further along.

Great job on the supermarket, by the way. I actually find the supermarket one of the most enjoyable places to practice conversing as there are ample opportunities to do so, plus it just seems intrinsically fun for some reason. I wish you all the best and look forward to reading more about your adventures as always!


No worries, you make a very valid point! It's almost impossible to get my German friend to speak German with me for such a reason (we actually started our friendship in French, but quickly switched over to English :oops: my fault!) So your concern isn't lost or wasted on me.

But that isn't a problem with my boyfriend. He is incredibly happy that I am learning Swedish, and even happier when I speak it with him. He doesn't switch to English unless he is having trouble explaining something, or unless I am having trouble understanding a Swedish explanation. I am the person who switches most! So you are right that I will have to force it - but the person I will need to convince is myself! If it were up to my boyfriend, the percentage of Swedish to English would probably even be higher!

(He was trying to incite me to write recipes in Swedish the other day. I told him point blank that it won't happen.)
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Sat Aug 05, 2017 8:16 pm

Lazy day today. I spoke a little Swedish with my boyfriend this morning and kept up with Clozemaster. I didn't go out, even though I absolutely said I would. I am definitely getting sick*, but that is no excuse. I just didn't want to.

I will maybe try to do a little bit of audiobook listening. I pay 169kr a month for my storytel subscription, so I really should make more use of it. I also would like to do some easy reading. My boyfriend has a few Pratchetts in Swedish translation, but I'm not too sure I feel like that. I want something lighter and fluffier. Like Pride and Prejudice.

*Yep, again. Nope, the last cold hadn't properly gone. This one feels worse than the other two already.
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Tue Aug 08, 2017 8:53 am

Thank you Morgana :)

I am still feeling less than my best. However yesterday, my boyfriend and I went for a trip to Kalmar. It was really lovely! Kalmar is a gorgeous town, and the train journey there is wonderful, especially as it passes through Småland. I saw lots of rabbits in the park round Kalmar which was excellent: I've never seen rabbits in the wild before. I saw in Aokoye's log that he discovered rabbits in Berlin too. I wish London parks had rabbits in them. We were visiting a friend of my boyfriend's, so we spoke a bit of Swedish with her and her mum. We switched a lot from Swedish to English, although my boyfriend kept mostly to Swedish unless he wanted to make a joke that would only work in English :roll: we have plans for lots of film nights and På Spåret evenings with her now, when the time comes.

Later, we wandered about the town a bit before finding a pub to have dinner in. The weather was good, so almost every patron was sat outside. They were having difficulty seating people as it got later, so it was something of a shock when I went inside and found that there were loads of free tables! At the pub, I spoke only in Swedish to the waitresses. I kind of shocked myself, as I always feel awkward when ordering, and tend to get mixed up because of nerves.

Other than that, I listened to about 40 minutes of the audiobook of Freja by Johanne Hildebrannt, bringing my total for that book up to fifty hours. I don't really know how I feel about it, to be honest, but I'll keep on going for a while longer. If nothing else, it's thirteen hours of audio for the SC and my personal input challenge.

On Sunday night, I also read the first story from Rent Spel to my boyfriend. It was difficult, because I insisted on Finno-svensk pronunciation of 'de' and 'dem', but also because my throat was so sore. I have always known that reading aloud is a skill in and of itself, and that just proves it: it was harder to read aloud than just to talk.

---

In other news, my boyfriend and I watched the first few minutes of 'Au Service de la France', which I found out about in MamaPata's log. Thanks for the recommendation! It seems interesting :D irritatingly, my Netflix free trial runs out on Wednesday, but it's something to keep in mind for if I even decide to get a proper subscription.
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby rdearman » Tue Aug 08, 2017 10:53 am

Elenia wrote:I wish London parks had rabbits in them.

I've seen rabbits in London parks before. There is a ratio of 1 rabbit per 10000000000000000000 pigdens.

Elenia wrote:I watched the first few minutes of 'Au Service de la France'

It is really good. I like it, but I don't think they are going to do another season. :( I especially liked the scene where some Americans try to explain why President Kennedy being a womaniser is a political problem to a bunch of French men in the 60's.
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